HV 5271 
.W5 
Copy l 



LIGHT WINES and BEER 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE CLAIMS OF 

BREWERS AND LIQUOR PUBLICITY AGENTS 

THAT THESE BEVERAGES ARE PROMOTIVE 

OF "TRUE TEMPERANCE" 



By SAMUEL WILSON 



Copyright, 1917, by The American Issue Publishing Co. 



PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING COMPANY, WESTERVILLE, O. 



ttZft' 



#UrV^. O.A^Zi^vU -^i*^ 



> » / o * * 4 



LIGHT WINES and BEER 

BY SAMUEL WILSON 



INTRODUCTION 

Driven into their last ditch by the persistent bombardment 
and assaults of the Prohibition forces in America, brewery pub- 
licity writers and the Hearst papers have forsaken the defense of 
distilled liquors and are making their last stand to save "light 
wines and beer.'' 

In a recent nation-wide proclamation, the United States Brew- 
ers' Association confess that beer has been in bad company, and 
with assumed sincerity they repudiate whisky and gin, brandy and 
rum, in these words : 

' "The true relationship of beer is with light wines and 
soft drinks, not with hard liquors. . . . Thus our product has 
been unjustly and improperly linked with those things over 
which we have no control, that have actually promoted in- 
temperance." 

Thus, like a stray puppy looking for a friend, kinship of interest 
is claimed with light wines and soft drinks, and beer and light wines 
and soft drinks and beer and light wines are lauded as beverages 
that promote "true temperance." 

Like argument is used by statesmen apologizing for permitting 
70,000,000 bushels of grain and other good food materials to be 
wasted in the making of beer and wines, the fear being expressed 
that if brewing and wine-making were to cease the country would 
be placed on a whisky drinking basis alone. The groundlessness 
of this fear is proved by the fact that all manufacture of distilled 
liquors has been stopped as a war measure, and the President has 
been given authority to commandeer all stocks of spirits for use in 
the manufacture of munitions; not to mention the high prices 
charged for such liquors making them prohibitory to the average 
drinker. 

For the sake of argument, let us suppose that distilled spirits 
are no longer an article of commerce. Would "true temperance" 
prevail, as the brewers claim, with "beer and light wines" as the 
only intoxicating beverages? 

The brewers and Hearst papers would have the people believe 
that the drunkenness, debauchery, licentiousness, poverty and woe 
resulting from strong drink are all caused by whisky, rum, brandy 

3 



done it sooner if he had not drunk beer, but you'd better take 
no chances. Christian Feigenspan, Inc.'' 

The Anti-Saloon League of New Jersey, seeing a good oppor- 
tusity for publicity, immediately inserted another advertisement in 
which the foregoing was quoted in small type, closing with the 
following statement in large type: 

"Alexander the Great died in a drunken debauch at the 
age of thirty-three. You had better take no chances. 

"Anti-Saloon League of New Jersey." 

This come-back advertisement was subsequently quoted as an 
example of business repartee in such papers as the Outlook, the 
Literary Digest, the Christian Advocate, and a large number of 
other papers. 

It certainly ought to be unsafe for the brewers to refer to an- 
cient history for examples or illustrations of sobriety. The story 
of Alexander's downfall is told by Plutarch, and is as follows : 
"In a carousal he drank all night and the next day and until at 
length he found a fever coming on. In the rage of his fever and 
the violence of his thirst, he took a drink of wine which threw him 
into a frenzy in which he died." It was not distilled spirits that 
killed Alexander, but ordinary fermented wine. 

Another story is told by Plutarch of drunken revelry, in which 
wine was the instrument of drunkenness. "Alexander invited his 
friends and officers to supper, and to give life to the carousal. 
promised that the man who drank the most should be crowned for 
the victory. Promachus drank four measures of wine (about four 
quarts) and carried off the crown, but survived it only three days. 
The rest of the guests drank to such a degree that forty-one of them 
lost their lives, the weather coming upon them extremely cold dur- 
ing their intoxication." 

Plutarch also tells the following story of drunkenness in the 
Court of Dionysius: "This young prince, it is said, would con- 
tinue the scenes of intoxication for ninety days without intermis- 
sion, during which time no sober person was admitted to his court, 
where all was drunkenness and buffoonery, revelry and riot." 

Gibbon tells of the evil effects of wine drinking on young 
Athalric. the Gothic King of Italy, who at the age of sixteen was 
consumed by premature intemperance. 

The ancients were very well aware of the evil effects of wine 
drinking and legislated strongly against it. Romulus,, the founder 
of Rome, made the drinking of wine, as well as adultery, a capital 
crime in women, for he said, "'Adulter}' opens the door to all sorts 
of crimes, and wine opens the door to adulterv.'" 

6 



Homer, the great poet of Greece, said, "Far from me be the 
gift of Bacchus — pernicious, inflaming wine, that weakens both 
body and soul." 

Socrates is on record as follows : "While the intemperate man 
inflicts evils upon his friends, he brings far more evil upon himself. 
Not only to ruin his family, but to bring ruin on his own body and 
soul is the greatest wrong that any man may commit." Wine, not 
distilled spirits, was the agent of intemperance that Socrates con- 
demned. 

Plutarch records how Cato of Rome, the Censor, was one day 
pointing to a man who had wasted in drink a paternal estate near 
the seaside. He pretended to admire him as one who was stronger 
than the sea itself. "For," he said, "what the sea could not have 
swallowed without difficulty, this man has taken down with all 
the ease imaginable." 

Pliny was speaking of wine, not of whisky, when he said, 
"Wine takes away reason, engenders insanity, leads to thousands 
of crimes and imposes an enormous expense on nations." 

There was no whisky, rum or brandy in the days of St. Augus- 
tine, yet he wrote of wine, which is now being urged as a "tem- 
perance beverage," as follows : "Wine drinking is the mother of all 
mischief, the root of crimes, the spring of vices, the whirlwind of 
the brain, the overthrow of the sense, the tempest of the tongue, 
the ruin of the body, the shame of life, the stain of honesty, and 
the plague and corruption of the soul." 

In Greece, the law of Zaleucus forbidding to the Epizephyrian 
Locrians the use of wine under the pain of death, except in case 
if sickness, was certainly a more drastic prohibition law than any 
of modern times. The inhabitants of Marseilles and Melitus con- 
tented themselves with prohibiting it to women. At Rome, in the 
early ages, young people of liberal contention were not permitted 
to drink wine until the age of thirty, according to Rollin, but as 
for women, the use of it was absolutely forbidden to them, and the 
reason of that prohibition was because intemperance of that kind 
might induce them to commit the most excessive crimes. Seneca 
complained bitterly that this custom was almost universally vio- 
lated, and told of Bacchanalian revelries of both men and women. 
The Emperor Domitian passed an edict in relation to wine, in which 
he decreed that no more vines should be planted in Italy, and that 
in the provinces at least one-half the vines should be rooted up to 
make more room for grain. 

Gibbon speaks of the ancient Germans, that they had devised 
a method of making strong beer which they extracted "with very 

7 



little art from wheat and barley, and corrupted (as it is strongly 
expressed by Tacitus) into a certain semblance of wine, which was 
sufficient for the gross purposes of German debauchery." In chap- 
ter 95, page 271, of Gibbon's Rome, he stated that "among the an- 
cient Germans many imagined a gross paradise of immortal drunk- 
enness." Of course, this drunkenness would be the result of beer 
drinking, as the ancient Germans knew nothing of distilled spirits 
and had no wine. 

The 'Spartans inculcated habits of frugality and temperance, 
for which they were distinguished from other nations. Plato 
observes "That salutary custom had banished from Sparta and all 
the territory dependent upon it, drunkenness, debauchery and all 
the disorders that ensue from them, insomuch that it was a crime 
punishable by law to drink wine to excess even in the Bacchanalia, 
which everywhere else were days of license, and on which whole 
cities gave themselves up to' the last excesses." 

These illustrations might be multiplied, but are surely suf- 
ficient to demonstrate that the claims made by the brewers and the 
Hearst papers, that wine and beer are temperance beverages, have 
no basis in human experience or human history. 

Will history repeat itself, or is modern human fiber so alcohol- 
ized that it cannot be affected by booze less potent than 14 per cent 
alcohol? For reply, go to the marts of white slavery where victims 
were betrayed from paths of purity by beer and light wines ; or ask 
a myriad victims of alcohol in lazar houses ; inquire of our army *of 
tramps, what started them on the downward way, and the answer 
will come: 

"It was beer, beer, beer! 

It was lager brought us here. 

"A glass of beer won't hurt you, drink it down, 

It will nourish, and will warm you, drink it down. 

Thus the downward path was started, 
From success and honor parted. 

"Now appetite has bound us with his chains; 

Now nought of good or purity remains ; 
Now all of cherished life — 

Home, companions, children, wife, 
Are swallowed in a flood of lager beer." 



CHAPTER IV. 
Habit-Forming Drugs 

The distinctions between vinous, malt, brewed and distilled 
liquors are merely matters of degrees, or potency of the poison al- 
cohol that they all contain. All are dilutions, just as laudanum is 
a dilution of another habit-forming drug, opium. Distilled liquors 
hold in solution a greater percentage of alcohol than do fermented 
liquors. Whether the solution contains 50, 25, 15, 10 or 5 per cent 
poison is a matter of detail. The real question at issue is that no 
poisonous drug in any degree should be sold as a beverage or for 
general consumption. 

The prohibitionist as a good citizen contends that all habit- 
forming drugs should be under governmental control. Both fed- 
eral and state laws have so ordered in cases of dangerous alkaloids 
and narcotics, which cannot be lawfully possessed or sold except 
for medicinal purposes, and upon the prescription of educated and 
licensed physicians, and dispensed by educated and licensed phar- 
macists. Next to alcohol the most widely used drug is opium; and 
government very strenuously guards against its indiscriminate use 
and sale, either in its natural condition, its dilution, laudanum, or 
its derivatives — morphine, heroin, codeine, narceine, narcotine, or 
papavarine. These restrictions cause discomfort and annoyance to 
multitudes of drug addicts who believe the laws to be an interfer- 
ence with their personal liberty, but public opinion sustains the 
paternalism. 

Alcohol a Habit-Forming Drug 

Alcohol, the active ag'ent in all manner of intoxicating bever- 
ages, is a dangerous poison and is so condemned by the highest of 
medical authorities. Sir Lauder Brunton, in his classical work on 
Materia Medica, says, "Alcohol is a nerve cell paralyzant, paralyz- 
ing the nerve cells in the inverse order of their development." This 
has never been disputed. 

As a result of an investigation by a committee of the British 
Parliament on the physical deterioration of the men of England, 
the city governments posted a bulletin as a warning to the young 
men of Great Britain, in which they said, "The continued use of 
alcohol, whether in the form of beer or wine or spirits, even though 
not to the extent of drunkenness, often leads to chronic poisoning." 

The International Convention of Alienists and Neurologists, in 
July, 1914, adopted resolutions strongly denouncing the use of alco- 
holic beverages and unqualifiedly condemning such use and recom- 
mending that the various State Legislatures take steps to eliminate 
their use. In their statements these scientists said : "In the opinion 

9 



of alienists and neurologists of the United States, in convention as- 
sembled, it has been definitely established that alcohol when taken 
into the system acts as a definite poison to the brain and other tis- 
sues, and that the effects of this poison are directly or indirectly 
responsible for a large proportion of the insane, epileptic, feeble- 
minded and other forms of mental, moral and physical degeneracy." 

Scientists assembled at the International Conference on Alco- 
holism in London, in 1909, gave the following definition of alcohol : 
"Exact laboratory, clinical and pathological research has demon- 
strated that alcohol is a dehydrating, protoplasmic poison, and its 
use as a beverage is destructive and degenerating to the human or- 
ganism. Its effects upon the cells and tissues of the body are de- 
pressive, narcotic and anaesthetic ; therefore. therapeutica ] ly. its use 
should be limited and restricted in the same way as the use of other 
poisonous drugs.'' 

The question for government to decide is. therefore, not one of 
the quantity of the drug in the solution, but as to the indiscriminate 
sale of the drug itself in any of its dilutions. The present system 
permits uneducated men to dispense the drug without medical ad- 
vice to any buyer, so long as he is able to stand up against the para- 
lyzing influence of the narcotic poison. There can be no temper- 
ance beverage that contains alcohol, and an average beer drinker 
will consume as much alcohol as an average whisky drinker — the 
difference being that he consumes more water in doing so mile 
be that the whisky drinker absorbs his alcohol in the form of high- 
balls, which would just about balance in proportions of alcohol and 
water with the beer drinker. 



CHAPTER V. 
"Light" Wines a Myth 

Why, in speaking of wines, do the liquor publicists almost in- 
variably use the adjective "light?" There are wines and wines, but 
judged by alcoholic content, there is none in our market that de- 
serves to be termed "light.*'' 

Ordinary table claret contains alcohol to the extent of 8 to 12 
per cent, and is as "heavy" as Burton's ale. Other wines run as 
high as 25 per cent alcohol, and a wine glassful has the intoxicating 
power of half the quantity of an ordinary glass of whisky. The fol- 
lowing table of alcoholic potency of popular wine :ied from 
the New International Enclycopedia : 

Cider 5 to 9 per cent 

Claret 8 to 12 per cent 

Hock 10 to 12 per cent 

10 



Burgundy 10 to 13 per cent 

Champagne 10 to 13 per cent 

Madeira * .15 to 20 per cent 

Sherry 15 to 20 per cent 

Port 15 to 25 per cent 

Rotten Grape Juice 

"Wine is a mocker" in more ways than one. Social usage, ad- 
vertising, literature and romance have surrounded the wine-cup with 
a charm that is chiefly sham, for, with all this camouflage rushed 
away, wine is rotten grape juice — nothing more, nothing less. If 
a connoisseur wishes to "look upon the wine when it is red, when 
it giveth its color within the cup," he permits the grapes to partially 
decay before pressing, so that the pigments next to the skin may 
be released. Thus he gets the color and thick "body" of a rich Port 
wine, or the ruby red of a prized Claret. For a white wine, the 
juice is pressed before decay, in other words, fermentation sets in. 
Would he have sparkling effervescent champagne, "extra dry?" 
After the fermentation is completed sugar is added, and the trans- 
formation of this sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide continues 
in the sealed bottles, resulting in the "pop" when the cork is drawn, 
and the bubbles as the gas from the fermented sugar comes to the 
surface. For this "pop" and the bubbles the fellows who love to 
pose as "spenders" pay two to four dollars extra per bottle, accord- 
ing to the label. 

Dangerous Sweet Wines 

Sweet wines are the most deceptive and therefore the more 
dangerous. All sweet wines are highly fortified with brandy. In 
their manufacture a grape with heavy sugar content is used. In 
the process of fermentation the yeast germ destroys the sugar,, 
transforming it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. For a "dry" wine 
this process continues until all the sugar, is consumed, but for a 
sweet wine, brandy is added at an early stage, thus checking the 
fermentation, which cannot go on because alcohol destroys its own 
"mother," the yeast germ, at 14 per cent. The result is a sweet 
wine, or "ladies' wine," that will speedily set silly tongues to 
babbling. 

Where are the traditional "light wines" to be found? In wine 
countries a cheap wine, "vin ordinairie," is made which workmen 
and peasantry consume in quantities. The process consists of mix- 
ing sugar and water with the pomace remaining after grapes are 
pressed, and fermenting this compound. The resulting "wine" is 
an acrid liquid containing very little alcohol, because of economy of 
sugar, and nearly akin to vinegar. 

TI 



HAPTER VI. 
Adulterations and Sham Liquors and Wines 
A very large proportion of the wines and liquors consumed in 
re adulterations or are sham productions. It is an ad- 
mitted fact that most of the whisky consumed is blended or recti- 
fied goods, made by the blending and combining of ethyl alcohol 
with water, caramel as coloring, prune juice and other flavorings. 
::s were brought out in the investigations before President 
:>n the question of "What is whisky," and evidence given by 
chemists and distillers at that hearing showed clearly that, with the 
rude alcohol, whisky, gin, rum, brandy and wine could be 
made, the only difference being the proportion of water and differ- 
and flavorings used. The consensus of this discus- 
gummed up very ely by the Hon. Joseph H. Choate 
in these words: 

of this controversy turns upon a very trifling item 

: the article called, or claimed to be called 

than one-half of one per cent of 

e material. All the rest of every kind of product of 

r so-called whisky, or claimed whisky, is alcohol 

and wa: per cent, 9934 per cent, 99 J & per cent 

this character — alcohol and water. Let me call attention now 

hat I think my friends on the other side will agree is the 

undisputed evidence in the matter. There is no standard of 

agreed that this one-half or one- 
: one per cent, or whatever it is that they claim makes 
een straight whisky- and everything else. 
.nk poison." — F: p 288 of Official Report. 
The investigation showed Duffy's Malt whisky to be prac- 
tical! rie as :her whiskies, - ::epting that one is advertised 
e and the other as medicine. When questioning Mr. 
Arms the attorney for the Duffy whisky-, the President said: 
It is n toxical : 
I lr. Armstrong — "It certainly is intoxicating if the doses pre- 
scribed upon the bottle are violated." — Page 1*296. 

Professor Chandler, considered a : ert chemist, with a 

record of eight years at Union College and 44 3-ears at Columbia. 

that there is practically no difference, excepting the flavor 

:id coloring matter, between whisk} 7 , brand}- and rum, and in 

answer to a question. 'To what is the characteristic flavoring of 

he answered, "To the tar that comes out of 

the charred barrel." — Page 1,003. 

:»n, Pittsburgh distiller. testified that his house 

12 



made a great variety of liquors by using neutral spirits, diluting 
them with water, adding caramel as coloring matter, bourbon oil to 
.obtain the flavoring of bourbon whisky, brandy oil for brandy, rum 
oil for rum, and that this was the practice in making the greater 
amount of so-called spirits sold to the trade. — Page 663. 

Sham Wines 

The writer has in his possession a book issued for use of the 
liquor trade, containing recipes for making brandies, whiskies, port- 
ers, gins, cocktails, wines, etc. Following are some of the ingredi- 
ents, the proportions being withheld for obvious reasons. "Port 
wine" is made of a mixture of port w r ine ether, aromatic tincture, 
tincture of rhatany, tincture of orris, simple syrup, rectified spirits, 
wine coloring, plain or raisin wine or fermented cider. 

To improve the above, add imported port wine. , Instead of 
wine coloring, either elderberry, cherry or huckleberry juice can be 
used, wholly or in part. 

"Sparkling champagne" is made from light white wine, simple 
syrup, rectified spirits. Then we are told to "mix properly and fill 
into bottles. Add to each bottle, crystallized citric acid, crystal- 
lized bicarbonate of potassa. Cork immediately and tie over." 

"Burgundy wine" is produced by mixing white wine, cherry 
juice, crushed raisins, sugar, crude tartar and unfermented cider. 

The process of mixing is then described as follows : 

"Put into ten gallon keg, and fill it with plain white wine. Nail 
a piece of linen over the bung, and let it ferment at 65 to 70 Fahren- 
heit. When the evolution of gas has nearly ceased, bung the keg 
tightly and put it into the cellar. Draw off after two months and 
strain through flannel. Fill it into another keg up to the bung, and 
leave it until cleared, when it is to be bottled." 

"Imitation of Rhine wine" is made of simple syrup, fruit acid, 
tannic acid, sulphate of soda and clear water— nearly all water. We 
are then told to "percolate through a wooden vessel filled with shav- 
ings which have been washed until they are tasteless. Maintain a 
moderately warm temperature. Let the liquid flow through the 
shavings repeatedly until it commences to ferment. W T hen it has 
arrived at the proper state, add rectified spirits. For "red wine" 
color with huckleberry juice or wine coloring." 

These are old recipes. Modern science can make sham wines 
and liquors with much greater economy. 

Vance Thompson, in his powerful and entertaining book, 
"Drink and Be Sober," handles this question of sham and adulter- 
ated wines and liquors very drastically. We quote from his book 
as follows : 

13 



•'At an investigation held recently at Albany, by the state 
authorities of New York, a chemist (a great man — I know 
him; he is my friend) showed the commission the 'tricks of 
the trade." The distillers and their experts and tasters and 
lobbyists were sent into an outer room. Then the chemist 
rilled a score of glasses with wood alcohol (the commission- 
ers looked on i. In each glass he dropped different chem- 
icals, making for color and odor and flavor. The expert 
whisky men were called in. Their tasters took up the 
glasses, one after the other: and they said: 'This is gin — 
this is Holland — this is rye whisky, three years old — this is 
new Bourbon whisky — this is rum — this is brandy, five years 
in the cask — this is Scotch or Irish.' and so on. . . . 

"I know a wine-forger who. among his friends, makes 
no secret of his business. 'Give me good water," he used to 
say. "and I will turn you out a bottle of any kind of wine you 
like to name — while you wait.'" 

"A dispensing chemist could not make up prescriptions 
more quickly than he manufactured his 'wines.' With a gill 
of cheap California wine, water, a few drops of vinegar and 
25 per cent of potato-alcohol, he will make you a quart of 
'claret'' while you stand at his elbow. If you want a Hock 
or Sauterne. he takes a little real sherry as a base, adds a 
little citric acid, an astringent, like tannic acid, to dry it. 
spirit and water in proportion, and there you are. Substitute 
white sugar syrup for the tannic acid and you have a 'Chab- 
lis.' and to 'age' it, add a little glycerine or glucose. 

"What will you have?" 

"Here's a brandy made of silent spirit and oenanthic 
ether, colored and sweetened with caramel — wood alcohol as 
a basis. An old dry champagne? Chemicals with a little 
aerated water added to the potato spirit. 

"And what will you top off with? 

"Your forger ranges his bottles of benzoic acid, benzoic 
ether, acetic acid and ether, oenanthic ether and glycerine 
or glucose : a drop or two of each — then fills up the glass with 
wood or potato alcohol and lo. it is Maraschino ! Do you pre- 
fer Kirchwasser? A drop or two of cochineal will 'do the 
trick. •' .... 

"I say it is doubtful if you can buy a glass of pure beer 
in any American saloon — or drink it at any brewery. 

"There are nineteen hop substitutes; there are fifteen 
malt substitutes ; so the brewer has his choice. And what 

14 



does he not choose? Aloes to give the bitter taste, soapstone 

for* frothiness, catechu for astringency 

"A few years ago the advocates of pure food — and drink 
— tried to get through the Legislature at Albany a law com- 
pelling the brewers to hold their beer in lager 'for three 
months. What happened? The brewers rose, screaming 
with beer-hysteria ; armed with clubs and financial sandbags, 
they slew the bill. Why? What was their objection to the 
measure? In France, in England, in Germany, beer must 
(so runs the law) be lagered — that is, it must be stored, for 
three months. There is no objection to the law^ there, be- 
cause the brewers are occupied in the relatively honest busi- 
ness of making beer out of malt and hops. In this country — 
in the ordinarily careless way in which they are permitted 
to make beer, without any supervision or standard — in this 
country, I repeat, the ferment the brewers use is accompa- 
nied by a large amount of other bacteria, which set up putre- 
factive fermentation in the organic matter accompanying the 
starches — and even in the starches themselves. Do you see 
the point? The ferment is not inspected and it is always — 
not occasionally — impure. As a result, the beer ferments 
putrefactively. These putrefactive changes go steadily on. 
In order to overcome them, the brewers add what they are 
pleased to call 'preservatives.' These 'preservatives' range 
all the way from arsenious acid, or what is known as white 
arsenic (a deadly poison), to salicylic acid, which causes 
many pathological injuries when used over a period of time, 
attacking notably the kidneys and irritating the liver." 



CHAPTER VII. 
What Is Beer? 

With slight variations the all malt beverages are made by the 
same general process. Ale was the name for brewed liquor in 
England prior to 1524, when hops were first introduced from Ger- 
many, and the German term, bier, was used to distinguish the un- 
hopped liquor. Modern ale contains hops and a greater amount of 
alcohol than beer. In making ale the fermentation in the vats is 
checked, leaving much of the sugar in solution, which decomposes 
later in the barrels. "Mild" ale remains' in the barrel for about 
one week, "pale" ale for two to four months, and "strong" ale from 
ten to fifteen months. 

Porter is a brew made to take the place of a mixture of ale, 
beer and "twopenny," as "half and half" was a mixture of ale and 

15 



"- - - .- - " 

- - - 



, ---- - - 



-. -. ' 



'•'••"z-i: Mi--. -: 

- - ■ ■ ' " - 



- 
■ - 



- 



- - 






■ - -- 



--- ■ ■ ' ~ - 

- _- - . ■ " " 

_ •*".. aaroil im 



7tr— rr_n-:- _ ii~^:;^ .-rod 

7 
. ■ - - - _ - - 7±ri: -'-.'.'-' 

cbibmhk dtoe aBoafenfl fossae 

- not ttifac attmffls- 



^gtinnnr.;: 



many is termed putting it in lager, from which the name lager beer 
is derived. 

Finally it is filtered and placed in barrels or bottles. 
In the Brewers' Year Book of 1914 in a special article by Prof. 
Charles F. Chandler, of Columbia University, the process of brew- 
ing is summarized in these words : 

"To summarize, I would say that beer is a beverage in 
the preparation of which malted barley, rarely malted wheat, 
rice and corn, or its products, are used. The malt is ex- 
tracted with hot water, an addition of hops is made, it is 
boiled and the solution constitutes the wort. The wort is 
cooled, the yeast is added, and the whole fermented to a 
finish. The sugar is split into alcohol and carbonic acid gas, 
a little free acid, glycerine and aromatic bodies in small quan- 
tities result. The product is beer." 
The foregoing is the process of making honest beer, but mod- 
ern brewing has changed this process very materially. Many 
other materials are used besides malted barley. Rice and large 
quantities of glucose obtained from corn are common ingredients. 
The process of storing for long periods for "ripening" has been 
changed to more economical methods by use of chemicals. 
Hops Contain Lupulin — a Dangerous Narcotic Drug 
Brewers' advertisements give considerable publicity to the 
idea of the alleged medical value of hops in the beer. As a mat- 
ter of fact, beer was brewed for centuries without the use of hops, 
and when first introduced in England the people petitioned the 
King against their use, saying- ''this wicked w r eed would spoil the 
drink and endanger the lives of the people." If there is any med- 
ical tonic value in the use of the extract of hops, it goes without 
saying that the prescription of the tonic ought not to be made by 
a bartender, but ought to come from a licensed physician and be 
compounded by an educated and licensed pharmacist. 

Those Englishmen who feared the "wicked weed" were wiser 
than they knew. The hop belongs to the hemp family, from which 
hasheesh is obtained, a most virulent narcotic drug, used especially 
in the Malay Archipelago, famous for causing natives to "run 
amuck." The lupulin glands of hops contain the same alkaloids 
and bitter tasting resins, which exert the same effect on the hu- 
man body as does hasheesh — differing only in degree. This ac- 
counts also for the varnished kidneys of so many beer drinkers. 

The following quotation from Dr. Edwin F. Bowers' book, 
"Alcohol, Its Influence on Mind and Body," is illuminating on the 
question of the value of the extract of hops as a beverage: 

17 



~- - ; : t ; ■ : * : f: z n t" ; : : t - : .; " t : .: i. : i; .-" i- 2 if 
; : :;;:; :;- 1 - r : " .:. i : . : . - zzt zz zzz t : : f i f r i : t i : : . : c i : zzzt 
ft&g resms tfiat it is poesMe to Ikeerr" beer. Hie bacterial 
_:'z-::r=L5 n :::" ini fir: .n : nLnnif ncf ire izzzitrt-i rr:m 
zzzzizzz .-.2.i- i; : .:.t ::i :; :::m.::; in Lie : : : f ~c:i Lf- 
tfee alec £dgL m pre^errrirrg" tradae f ermeiitatiaiL So the 
.i-trn.i. irrini :: i :eer innce: inierz: i :: : ::.: incrff 
;: : -V-- — .:.:.-. ":^:i :." if- iz>: ..: :«: :er :en: :-e 
;- mi i: ~ : . . ; :e .: :e unfnrc nnfcl: tn: r. ~- . : i 



H:': — z .: : t min. in: Miennn: rx^lin^~-:ni if 
- - - - ■ - 

pf<frty ami ctarasy- ELeavmess of mfnd peculiar to 1 uiao 

..i iilre . i . --/;' z. :n~el_ :n zzzt i»e~ trine :_:. i: mj.m em i- 
tEzed Ga^nbrnius- TTfeat *i*aafcy an<i brSIran.ce i iidi 

enable tfee Mcnicfi: beer drinker, for imsiar: : 

zzzzz iif :eer z...z ::r m .: . : :r i: i nme irt i;~:_ii_ 

11 "— Tl.rll 1^." T. -r .': 1 ~ ~'7 * ~ ,"-11 Z.'.Zz' 

— 




m j-rt-i: :mn n :>:«: :ei:re :h = 

i -. i i ~ '"' rnni '•" i ".":: :n i«eec ::::::'.i.: : - En: i :n nt in i _i . 

recon r.~ef i .::: nf" :: miieri'-f -S±z .z irt~m — -::n ire 

1". :! le.l m 1 ,11:_":1 ZT 1 .. 7 5 

".-ze (flaked)), maize > getarfmyed" > r maizotie. cerealme, saga 
rr i nn: ::mene-i —.in _ .:: ; :: ; :::.: :: ." I e.m e f z~"f z ~'zztz- 
hercF s cq rm ma-Tin rice, rice sUls*. rice lake*!, rice geLi : 
^ ItI.iiitt: :_:.:: ; ,n- fiiiii:." rl-::fc n : : f e :r:m f~ni 
n.iiir inn n~ rrn- zi-iife irztn "i.i: :.::i: :n:-m ;i:i:: 

fcgar r faoraej,, vKcosoIfne. dextrtrie^ maltxj^extxirLe, black malt 



-:cf :jz.!5.5Z3. I.: nil n-i: nmin^ti ,:i; i.m.i ":- 
zzzz. *:.ii;r.: i n :. 



- : - - ■ - • 

1 1 " i n t . 

:z 



Clarifying Matters 

Finings, isinglass, fishy matter (sole skins). 
Sundry and Stimulating 

Licorice, grains of paradise, guinea pepper, cocculus indicus. 
Cocculus indicus is also not permitted to be used. 

In the bottling of beer and ale, in order to preserve the con- 
tents, it is a common practice to use salicylic acid. The report of 
the Massachusetts Board of Health, 1894, refers to this practice in 
the following language: "It appears to be a common custom to 
preserve ale and beer by the addition of salicylic acid. The use of 
this drug for this purpose is everywhere recognized as harmful 
and unjustifiable." 

There is no justification in describing beer or ale as malt ex- 
tract, as after going through the process of fermentation the only 
qualities of the malt that remain are some mineral matter and ex- 
tracts that are insoluble and resist the decomposing influence of 
the yeast germ, the only other material — the sugar — having been, 
by the decaying process, transformed into alcohol and carbonic 
acid gas. The only genuine extract of malt is a material that is 
described as malt tea, which contains in liquid form the food value 
of malt, but in beer and ale most of the sugar, practically the only 
food material, has been transformed into poison, which neutralizes 
any trifling food value in the malt solution remaining after fer- 
mentation. 

The analysis of beer as given in Horsley and Sturge's "Alco- 
hol and the Human Body," is as follows : 

Water 90 per cent 

Albumen 0.5 per cent 

Sugar 1.5 per cent 

Mineral 0.4 per cent 

Extractive 3.1 per cent 

Alcohol 4.5 per cent 



100 



An analysis made by the North Public Health Bureau of New 
York city for the New Jersey Anti-Saloon League of a bottle of 
Anheuser-Busch Budweiser lager beer showed the alcohol con- 
tent to be 4.80 per cent. 

Such is the beverage that a conspiracy of brewers and news- 
papers in America advertise so widely as "liquid bread" — 90 per 
cent water, 5 per cent poison and the balance insoluble salts and 
extractives of practically no food value. 

19 



Beer 


Spirits 


(Gallons) 


(Gallons ) 


20.62 


1.50 


38. 


1.50 


8. 


2.50 


3i- 


*75 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Drunkenness in Beer and Wine Countries 

A popular fallacy, based upon misrepresentation, is the belief 
that drunkenness is rare in nations that drink great quantities of 
beer and wine, such as Germany and France. Another fallacy is 
that where the use of these fermented beverages is encouraged 
there is very little consumption of distilled spirits. 

Official reports of the per capita consumption of wine, beer 
and distilled spirits in different countries of the world, covering 
the year 1913. show the following: 

Country. Vine 

( Gallons 

United States 56 

England 50 

France 26.2 

Germany 1.75 

As will be seen from the above tabulation, the wine producing 
countries of France and Germany, each consumed more distilled 
spirits per capita than the United States ; and in France more wine 
was consumed per capita than beer in the United States, and in 
Germany 50 per cent more beer was consumed per capita than in 
the United States, so that the per capita consumption of pure alco- 
hol in these beer and wine countries was very much greater than 
in the United States. 

Alcoholism a Menace to France 
Before the war, alcoholism had become a greater menace to 
France, the home of "light wines," than was Germany. Speaking 
on this subject in Sorbonne, January 3, 1910, M. Joseph Reinach, a 
member of the French House of Deputies, said : 

"We have become the most drunken nation on earth, and 
that, gentlemen, in thirty years. The number of drink-shops 
has reached the frightful figure of 477.000, one for every 
thirty adults. In many of our great cities and seaport towns 
the number of drinking places has, since 1880, doubled, nearly 
tripled. In hundreds of villages, one counts a saloon for 
every tenth, nay. every fourth or third house. And in spite 
of this supersaturation, the increase continues. More than 
six new saloons are on the average opened each day. Since 
1880 our consumption of absolute alcohol has doubled, in 
some provinces sextupled. And the consequences of this 
immense poisoning — who does not know them? They are 
written in the flesh of the nation. Ask at the "Ministry of 

20 



Justice for the statistics of criminality; at the Ministry of 
the Interior for those of madness, of suicide, of tuberculosis; 
at the Ministry of War for the conscript lists, in ten de- 
partments the number of rejected conscripts has risen from 
o per cent to 20 per cent. In all France the number of sui- 
cides has doubled, of insane has advanced by a continual 
progression from 47,000 to 70,000. More than half the crimes 
against persons are committed by alcoholists." 

Italy's Drunken School Children 

Italy, another "light wine" country, is far from immune from 
the evils of drunkenness. The Societa Umanitaria of Milan has 
recently published a little volume, the very name of which is sug- 
gestive, "Alcolisimo e tin pericolo per Italia" (Alcoholism Italy's 
Great Danger). In that book we are told that investigations were 
made among 36,000 school children of Milan ; and of the boys, 25 
per cent admitted having been drunk on more tha none occasion, 
While n per cent of the girls made the same confession. 

The Milan prosecutor says: "It falls to my lot frequently to 
have to sum up the causes of a tragedy in two words — wine and 
knife." From Parma comes the warning, "The increase in wages 
and the cheapness of wine have led to a growth of drunkenness. '' 

Insanity, too, is on the increase. Wine alcoholism is shown 
tq be responsible for a large part of it. 

The Alcohol Blight in Germany 

In Germany the alcohol problem was very acute before the 
war and was sapping the vitality of the nation, and over 400 uni- 
versity professors and men of science united in a great anti-alcohol 
protest. Dr. Emil Muensterberg (brother of the late Prof. Muen- 
sterberg of Harvard, who not long ago sounded the praises of beer 
to" the American public) recently said: "The consumption of alco- 
hol in Germany is very great. . . . Fifty thousand insane are in 
German asylums yearly whose sickness can be traced to alcohol." 

The Kaiser, with an eye to military efficiency, urged his em- 
bryo officers to join the Good Templars, a total abstinence organi- 
zation. Dr. Matthaei, a staff physician of the German army, de- 
nounces all kinds of alcoholic beverages in the following strong 
language : 

"We should not discuss moderation with a man. The 
thing has long since been settled by science. The use of 
narcotic poisons is simply indecent and criminal." 
A short time before the present war, the German Minister of 
War distributed among the army thousands of copies of a pamphlet 

21 



entitled "Alkohol and" Wehrkrait." It is a terrific arraignme 
beer drinking- Here are a tew of his most telling sentence 

"Many do not suspect what a destructive poison they are 
taking into themselves. . . . What devastation this poison 
has caused among the German- people, and still causes 
Pure alcohol is undoubtedly considered a poison. . . . Alcohol 
disturbs the digestion, causes pathological fatty growth and 
distinct changes in brain, liver and heart. There is no j . 
fication for calling beer 'liquid bread/ A glass of heavy beer 
costing 25 pf . has no more nourishment than a piece of ch e 
costing One pf . . . . Almost all the excesses during leave 
absence, fighting and disturbance of public order are to be 
traced back to drink. . . . We must speak plainly. 11 
mostly beer which causes so much mischief. . . . This is not 
the harmless drink which many suppose it to be." 
Americans who have visited German beer gardens where fam-_ 
-it about tables and sip their beer have returned with super- 
ficial views of the temperate German people. T 
surface. They did not visk the 800 Animierkneipen or beer dives 
in Berlin, which employ 1,786 "waitresses." of whom Dr. Mue. 
berg says Thousands of fresh young women go to destruction in 
a short time and are rarely to be rescued/* Speaking of these 
places, Gonser, a prominent student of sociology, has declared that 
"beside them a brothel is a moral institution/" They did no: 
the Munich Octoberfest. a beer fest. where, according 1xrDe~ 
stinente Arb- 12. 191 >i. on the last Sunday in a single 

beer booth, the Brawrozi, no less than 48 pe: ere wounded, 

among them two policemen; and during tri- 

wounds and 143 of ^sudden sickness, of whom 116 were women, 
were given in charge to the sanitary corps. 

The barbarism exhibited by Germans in the great world war 
might be an echo of the prophecy of Dr. Edward von Hartman. 
one of Germany's most profound philosophers: "The civilization of 
the twentieth century threatens, in consequence of the drenching 
in drink, to sink again into barbarism and degeneracy." Com- 
menting on this, Ernest Gordon in his great work. "The Anti- 
Alcohol Movement in Europe,'" 

"The facts justify his -opinion. From : 8 _ - : 
twenty-five years, the number taken for drunkenness to the 
hospitals and insane asylums of Germany increased fivefold, 
and for delirium tremens threefold, although the population 
had increased but one-rthird. The number of hospital pa- 
tients for heart-sickness in this period rose from 15^.012 to 



84,071 — five and one-halt-fold, and the relation between beer 
drinking and heart failure is unquestioned. Professor von 
Grnber tells us that one-half of the German city school chil- 
dren are sick and weakly ; that a bare 50 per cent of the young 
men in German cities are able to do military service ; that a 
large percentage of the young women cannot nurse their 
children. v Professor Gravitz of Charlottenburg finds alco- 
holic disturbance in 34 per cent of all his male patients over 
thirty years. 'Alcoholism,' he says, 'is undoubtedly the most 
important and commonest form of poisoning;' and Professor 
Dr. Stadelmann in the 1905 report of the Friedrichshain Hos- 
pital, Berlin, continues : 'Our people suffer more in health 
and economic power from schnaps than from tuberculosis, 
against which fight has been long successfully waged.' " 

And German brewers in America would make Americans be- 
lieve that beer is a ''temperance beverage." 

Whisky, gin, rum, brandy, wine, beer, ale, porter and stout — 
they have been boon companions for 800 years, particeps crimines 
before the courts of law, and now that the Court of Public Opinion 
has outlawed them — in death they should not be separated. 



23 



I! II III I III I I'l 1 1 II II II II 

027 279 904 



